Ahuna Vairya

Ahuna Vairya is the Avestan language name of Zoroastrianism's first of four Gathic Avestan formulas. The text, which appears in Yasna 27.13, is also known after its opening words yatha ahu vairyo. In Zoroastrian tradition, the formula is also known as the ahun(a)war.

Numerous translations and interpretations exist, but the overall meaning of the text remains obscure. The Ahuna Vairya and Ashem Vohu (the second most sacred formula at Yasna 27.14) are together "very cryptic formulas, of a pronounced magical character." The Ahunavaiti Gatha (chapters 28-34 of the Yasna), is named after the Ahuna Vairya formula.

Like the other three formulas (Ashem vohu, Yenghe hatam, Airyaman ishya), the Ahuna Vairya is part of the Gathic canon, that is, part of the group of texts composed in the more archaic dialect of the Avestan language. Together with the other three formulas, the Ahuna Vairya is part of the 'envelope' that liturgically encloses the Gathas, i.e. the hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. One of the formulas, the Airyaman ishya (Yasna 54.1) follows the Gathas, while the other three formulas -- Ahuna Vairya, Ashem vohu and Yenghe hatam (together at Yasna 27.13-27.15) -- precede them.

Unlike the third and fourth formula, the first two formulas -- the Ahuna Vairya and the Ashem vohu -- are part of the Kusti prayers. Unlike the third and fourth formula, the first two do not express wishes and are technically purificatory and meditational declarations (asti, "it is").

The Ahuna Vairya is already a subject of theological exegesis in scripture itself, in particular in Yasna 19, where "this utterance is a thing of such a nature, that if all the corporeal and living world should learn it, and learning hold fast by it, they would be redeemed from their mortality." (19.10) In Yasna 19.3 and 4.8, the formula is described as having been a primordial utterance of Ahura Mazda, articulated immediately after the creation of the spiritual world (and before the material world), and that its efficacy in aiding the righteous is due to its primordial nature.

As a primordial utterance, the Ahura Vairya is described to have talismanic virtues: the power to aid mortals in distress, and inversely as a potent weapon against the demonic daevas. Elsewhere in the Avesta, the Ahuna Vairya is described as the "most victorious" (Yasht 11.13), as the "veracious word" (Yasna 8.1), as the "sacred gift" (Yasna 27.7). In Vendidad 11.3, in addition to being "most healing", frequent recitation of the Ahura Vairya is prescribed as an act of hygiene to "protect the body". In Yasna 9.14, Zoroaster is given credit as the first mortal to recite it.

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